Currently I'm living in Spain. A lot of xenophobia here, by British ex-pats aimed at 'bloody foreigners coming to our (UK) shores, not integrating, taking the place over'. Said without a touch of irony, as they sit in a British bar on the edge of their mainly British housing complex where they eat their ready meals bought from UK stores. After a few months I speak better Spanish than any of them. And that's not exactly fluent.

REALLY?! I yearn for the day when everyone arguing for restricted free movement to the UK in Europe is forced to realise that that stuff goes two ways. Sure, foreigners can't move here, but you can't have your holiday home in France or retire to Spain.

Currently I'm living in Spain. A lot of xenophobia here, by British ex-pats aimed at 'bloody foreigners coming to our (UK) shores, not integrating, taking the place over'. Said without a touch of irony, as they sit in a British bar on the edge of their mainly British housing complex where they eat their ready meals bought from UK stores. After a few months I speak better Spanish than any of them. And that's not exactly fluent.

REALLY?! I yearn for the day when everyone arguing for restricted free movement to the UK in Europe is forced to realise that that stuff goes two ways. Sure, foreigners can't move here, but you can't have your holiday home in France or retire to Spain.

Well, yea but... there's a difference between someone retiring wealthy in another country, and someone immigrating in poverty to the same country. Not to come off on the side of the racists, but it's clearly two separate cases and the responses from locals will be quite different. Sure you can't speak my language and refuse to eat my food, but you have money so bienvenido!

Currently I'm living in Spain. A lot of xenophobia here, by British ex-pats aimed at 'bloody foreigners coming to our (UK) shores, not integrating, taking the place over'. Said without a touch of irony, as they sit in a British bar on the edge of their mainly British housing complex where they eat their ready meals bought from UK stores. After a few months I speak better Spanish than any of them. And that's not exactly fluent.

REALLY?! I yearn for the day when everyone arguing for restricted free movement to the UK in Europe is forced to realise that that stuff goes two ways. Sure, foreigners can't move here, but you can't have your holiday home in France or retire to Spain.

Well, yea but... there's a difference between someone retiring wealthy in another country, and someone immigrating in poverty to the same country. Not to come off on the side of the racists, but it's clearly two separate cases and the responses from locals will be quite different. Sure you can't speak my language and refuse to eat my food, but you have money so bienvenido!

Eh, I think it's the same thing. One issue is having economic migrants vs rich retired people come to a country, but once they get there then the 'integration' thing is the same. "Oh, all these foreigners coming over here not speaking our language and wanting to eat all their foreign food and only see other foreign people" - the culture issue is the same for both groups. The economic arguments may be different but large groups of Brits eating marmite on the Costa del Sol has an equally damaging effect on culture and society.

Oh, FFS--an online acquaintance, who is on disability for "anxiety issues" and whose live-in boyfriend doesn't make a lot of money, posted yet AGAIN about her two cats' various medical problems, all of which involve tons of tests and pricy medicines. Their vet bills are approaching five figures, and she freely admits to skipping meals and bills to pay. The cats in question are SEVENTEEN and SIXTEEN years old. She switched vets last year when the previous one told her she was flushing money down the toilet and all he was doing was prolonging their suffering. Her reasoning is that the cats were alive when her parents were alive and it "keeps my memories of Mom and Dad." This would be the same mom and dad who were physically and emotionally abusive according to her. Those poor cats. :(

Oh, FFS--an online acquaintance, who is on disability for "anxiety issues" and whose live-in boyfriend doesn't make a lot of money, posted yet AGAIN about her two cats' various medical problems, all of which involve tons of tests and pricy medicines. Their vet bills are approaching five figures, and she freely admits to skipping meals and bills to pay. The cats in question are SEVENTEEN and SIXTEEN years old. She switched vets last year when the previous one told her she was flushing money down the toilet and all he was doing was prolonging their suffering. Her reasoning is that the cats were alive when her parents were alive and it "keeps my memories of Mom and Dad." This would be the same mom and dad who were physically and emotionally abusive according to her. Those poor cats. :(

Good thing I don't know her, I'd hit her over the head. Bad enough that people do cancer treatments for animals. My 16 year old cat is starting kidney problems, but she loves the "treatment" - extra wet food. I'll do palliative care, but I'm not going to make her miserable or allow her to suffer. Luckily, no where near that yet!

Oh, FFS--an online acquaintance, who is on disability for "anxiety issues" and whose live-in boyfriend doesn't make a lot of money, posted yet AGAIN about her two cats' various medical problems, all of which involve tons of tests and pricy medicines. Their vet bills are approaching five figures, and she freely admits to skipping meals and bills to pay. The cats in question are SEVENTEEN and SIXTEEN years old. She switched vets last year when the previous one told her she was flushing money down the toilet and all he was doing was prolonging their suffering. Her reasoning is that the cats were alive when her parents were alive and it "keeps my memories of Mom and Dad." This would be the same mom and dad who were physically and emotionally abusive according to her. Those poor cats. :(

Yea no... we had friends like that, went into huge debt over a dachsund that slipped a vertebrae.. dog eventually died after expensively prolonging its wretched life for months past its natural time. By the end it was pushing itself around on an adapted wheel board contraption and wearing a diaper. It was actually a form of cruelty that they couldn't stand to let it go.

Oh, FFS--an online acquaintance, who is on disability for "anxiety issues" and whose live-in boyfriend doesn't make a lot of money, posted yet AGAIN about her two cats' various medical problems, all of which involve tons of tests and pricy medicines. Their vet bills are approaching five figures, and she freely admits to skipping meals and bills to pay. The cats in question are SEVENTEEN and SIXTEEN years old. She switched vets last year when the previous one told her she was flushing money down the toilet and all he was doing was prolonging their suffering. Her reasoning is that the cats were alive when her parents were alive and it "keeps my memories of Mom and Dad." This would be the same mom and dad who were physically and emotionally abusive according to her. Those poor cats. :(

Yea no... we had friends like that, went into huge debt over a dachsund that slipped a vertebrae.. dog eventually died after expensively prolonging its wretched life for months past its natural time. By the end it was pushing itself around on an adapted wheel board contraption and wearing a diaper. It was actually a form of cruelty that they couldn't stand to let it go.

We have an 18 year old cat that is losing weight and starting to hobble around more. Otherwise he doesn't appear to be in pain and is still continent. We're trying to decide what to do moving forward. We'll probably just let him decline at home without medical intervention. If he starts to really demonstrate suffering, we'll likely take him to the vet to be put down. I don't know if that's the right tactic, but I see no reason to prolong his life if he is suffering. He has lived a long life for a cat.

We have an 18 year old cat that is losing weight and starting to hobble around more. Otherwise he doesn't appear to be in pain and is still continent. We're trying to decide what to do moving forward. We'll probably just let him decline at home without medical intervention. If he starts to really demonstrate suffering, we'll likely take him to the vet to be put down. I don't know if that's the right tactic, but I see no reason to prolong his life if he is suffering. He has lived a long life for a cat.

This was a tough year to be a Mandalay Beast--we had four cats die on us in eight months. Two went very suddenly; one had been on medication for a while but the vet told us in the end it would stop working and it did, and the last was Meg, our 18-year-old matriarch. One thing that I've decided is worth the money is in-home euthanasia. When it was obvious Meg's time had come we had a vet come to our condo, and Meg lay on my lap as she liked to do and got petting and love, and she went very peacefully. We still have four that are in good shape, but they're 16, 14, 12 and 9. I think I'm just going to get a stuffed Lil Bub and leave it at that for cat ownership in the future.

We have an 18 year old cat that is losing weight and starting to hobble around more. Otherwise he doesn't appear to be in pain and is still continent. We're trying to decide what to do moving forward. We'll probably just let him decline at home without medical intervention. If he starts to really demonstrate suffering, we'll likely take him to the vet to be put down. I don't know if that's the right tactic, but I see no reason to prolong his life if he is suffering. He has lived a long life for a cat.

This was a tough year to be a Mandalay Beast--we had four cats die on us in eight months. Two went very suddenly; one had been on medication for a while but the vet told us in the end it would stop working and it did, and the last was Meg, our 18-year-old matriarch. One thing that I've decided is worth the money is in-home euthanasia. When it was obvious Meg's time had come we had a vet come to our condo, and Meg lay on my lap as she liked to do and got petting and love, and she went very peacefully. We still have four that are in good shape, but they're 16, 14, 12 and 9. I think I'm just going to get a stuffed Lil Bub and leave it at that for cat ownership in the future.

Thanks for the info! This will be our last cat. With three kids I just don't have the ability to give the love and attention they deserve. I will be sad when our cat passes but also somewhat relieved that I won't have to clean up after him anymore.

I had never heard of in-home euthanasia. I have to confess that we haven't taken this cat to the vet in years. Would that cause a problem obtaining the service? I mentioned to my husband that I would be irked if, right before we euthanized him, they made us update our cat's immunizations or charged us a lot since he hasn't been in a while.

Vets generally don't like just being called for the in-home euthanization and nothing beforehand. One said to me that it was the most heart-rending part of the job, and she felt annoyed when people called her in to do it when they hadn't used her services beforehand -- like "Do the dirty work, but you don't get to do any of the healing or care of the cat beforehand, we don't care enough for that."

One thing is that cats commonly hide their conditions if they're ill, so if your cat has, say, kidney disease or bad teeth (and bad teeth can be extremely painful), you won't know until the condition gets so extreme that they can't hide it. In the case of kidney disease, that will be convulsions. It's worth taking your cat in for a checkup every few years, just to make sure nothing's getting by you and causing your cat unnecesssary pain.

We just used in-home euthanasia for our dog yesterday and it was a wonderful option to have available. In my area, there are vets that only do this service, and I found the vet (and they are all licensed vets) we used with a quick google search. Our regular vet doesn't do home visits, and any visit to the vet's office stressed our dog out. I was grateful we were able to avoid that at the end of her life with us.

We just used in-home euthanasia for our dog yesterday and it was a wonderful option to have available. In my area, there are vets that only do this service, and I found the vet (and they are all licensed vets) we used with a quick google search. Our regular vet doesn't do home visits, and any visit to the vet's office stressed our dog out. I was grateful we were able to avoid that at the end of her life with us.

:( I'm sorry for your loss. I was actually wondering about this as my dog is terrified of the vet.

One advantage of getting flea and worm medicine from my vet is that I take my dog in with me when I do it, and he gets to sniff around the waiting room (I go in between surgery hours), is petted by the nurse and is weighed for free in the consulting room in return for a treat. As a result he considers visiting the vet to be an enjoyable stop, and the occasional indignity of having his temperature taken and so on during an actual consultation seems to figure fairly low for him. Paying a bit more for the flea medicine would be worth it just for that, even disregarding the fact that I can get the most appropriate and up to date medicines for whatever infestations are going around locally.

I have a friend whose car died, and she needs a new car. Earlier this week, she posted on Facebook, stating that she only has $500 to her name. I see today, she somehow wound up with a 2010 Chrysler 300. BRILLIANT!

I'm jealous of the guy because he's really successfull (at least I think he is.)

I would recommend against feeling envious of others, though it can be difficult. He may appear to be successful, but then again, he may have a high spender and might feel the need to work harder just to keep up his style of living.

Vets generally don't like just being called for the in-home euthanization and nothing beforehand. One said to me that it was the most heart-rending part of the job, and she felt annoyed when people called her in to do it when they hadn't used her services beforehand -- like "Do the dirty work, but you don't get to do any of the healing or care of the cat beforehand, we don't care enough for that."

One thing is that cats commonly hide their conditions if they're ill, so if your cat has, say, kidney disease or bad teeth (and bad teeth can be extremely painful), you won't know until the condition gets so extreme that they can't hide it. In the case of kidney disease, that will be convulsions. It's worth taking your cat in for a checkup every few years, just to make sure nothing's getting by you and causing your cat unnecesssary pain.

Lap of Love is an organization that provides animal hospice and in-home euthanasia. Something worth checking out if you are interested in those services. They have people all over the united states.

I have a friend whose car died, and she needs a new car. Earlier this week, she posted on Facebook, stating that she only has $500 to her name. I see today, she somehow wound up with a 2010 Chrysler 300. BRILLIANT!

hahaha - my brain automatically processed this as cat initially after the past few posts.

We just used in-home euthanasia for our dog yesterday and it was a wonderful option to have available. In my area, there are vets that only do this service, and I found the vet (and they are all licensed vets) we used with a quick google search. Our regular vet doesn't do home visits, and any visit to the vet's office stressed our dog out. I was grateful we were able to avoid that at the end of her life with us.

We had to do this to our old English Setter. She loved car rides so the vet put her to sleep laying in her bed in the "wayback" (cargo area) when we drove to the vet's office. She never knew it was coming and went without a worry in the world. We cried like babies all the way home. Had her cremated and sprinkled her ashes along a favorite hiking trail.

My first cat hated hated the vet, it was a struggle to get him in the carrier and he would be yowling, scratching, breathing heavy, in extreme distress. When at the vet me petting him and talking to him would somewhat break through to him but he would still be breathing heavy and terrified. And as soon as exam done, would duck into carrier. My 2nd cat doesn't like to go to the vet and in the carrier (will hide) but won't fight us if we can catch her. She is wiley, and has been times we have had to cancel scheduled appointments because we could not find her.

None of our dogs had problems with the vet. It's yay! a car ride and yay! get to smell these other animals in the office.

Post from a local broker. I'm jealous of the guy because he's really successfull (at least I think he is.)

But the damn logic of this post blow my mind.

Don't be jealous of this guy; he is barely literate.

I'm not sure if I've gotten used to shitty writing or if you're very picky, but I barely noticed the bad grammar.

Really? It made my skin crawl!

Why does it do that? I'm seriously asking. I can understand wanting to sound professional and being clear in your message, but beyond that, why does it bother you? I'm not trying to call you out, but understand why so many people on the internet seem fascinated by someone's misspellings, esp when it's clear that what they meant to type.

Post from a local broker. I'm jealous of the guy because he's really successfull (at least I think he is.)

But the damn logic of this post blow my mind.

Don't be jealous of this guy; he is barely literate.

I'm not sure if I've gotten used to shitty writing or if you're very picky, but I barely noticed the bad grammar.

Really? It made my skin crawl!

Why does it do that? I'm seriously asking. I can understand wanting to sound professional and being clear in your message, but beyond that, why does it bother you? I'm not trying to call you out, but understand why so many people on the internet seem fascinated by someone's misspellings, esp when it's clear that what they meant to type.

As an editor, I love that people make mistakes. It keeps me in business. The most egregious mistake in that realtor's post was the use of "there" instead of "their." If you can't catch that after re-reading once or twice -- which every professional should do before they post something on social media -- you need some assistance.

Why does it do that? I'm seriously asking. I can understand wanting to sound professional and being clear in your message, but beyond that, why does it bother you? I'm not trying to call you out, but understand why so many people on the internet seem fascinated by someone's misspellings, esp when it's clear that what they meant to type.

I'm not the person who said that, but it bugged me too. I just hate seeing shoddy work. It's like a wobbly chair, or a song with missed notes, or a poorly exposed photograph. It's grating, and it makes me think that the person behind it is incompetent or just doesn't care.

What really bugs me personally is the awkward and verbose sentence structure. What does it even mean to "come out of your savings account"? How did you even get in there? "Money is near the all-time low of how cheap it is to borrow" ... could we just say "Borrowing is very inexpensive", or "interest rates are low"?

Anyway, just my opinion, I understand it doesn't mean the same things to everyone.

Why does it do that? I'm seriously asking. I can understand wanting to sound professional and being clear in your message, but beyond that, why does it bother you? I'm not trying to call you out, but understand why so many people on the internet seem fascinated by someone's misspellings, esp when it's clear that what they meant to type.

I'm not the person who said that, but it bugged me too. I just hate seeing shoddy work. It's like a wobbly chair, or a song with missed notes, or a poorly exposed photograph. It's grating, and it makes me think that the person behind it is incompetent or just doesn't care.

What really bugs me personally is the awkward and verbose sentence structure. What does it even mean to "come out of your savings account"? How did you even get in there? "Money is near the all-time low of how cheap it is to borrow" ... could we just say "Borrowing is very inexpensive", or "interest rates are low"?

Anyway, just my opinion, I understand it doesn't mean the same things to everyone.

yeah. normally i don't care so much about bad spelling and grammar, but this case is galling to me because this person is attempting to give financial and life advice, like he thinks he is a pretty smart guy and he has wisdom to offer the masses and we don't even know what we are missing out on!!!